Unseen by Death
by Skeren Dreamera
Summary: Libra wasn't the end. Duo... Is that an imp on the counter? Why is it calling you master?
1. The Beginning

**Title:** Unseen by Death

**Author:** Skeren Dreamera

**Pairings:** to be 2x6 if continued

**Feedback:** Mickeofasyahoo.com

**Warnings:** Some supernatural, shounen ai

**Spoilers:** Epyon, Libra, end of the war

**Notes:** It just occurred to me that very few people ever do anything with Zechs between the one-year war and Endless Waltz. Well, here you go. I'm not sure if I will continue though... Anyone interested?

Beginning.

The blonde lay in the wreckage of what had once been Epyon, and waited to die. Death refused to take him. In fact, had he known, he would have cried, because death did not _know_ him at all. Not the living death, and the other minions served to avoid him because the living one didn't know he had to direct them _to_ this one. So he waited. He waited for hours upon hours, awake and in pain, but still, he did not die, did not cease to be... whoever he really was. Some called him Milliardo Peacecraft, while others called him Zechs Merquise... But who was he? It was about that point that he realized something with crystal clarity. Whoever he was, he hadn't ever rolled over and died before, so it was pointless to start now. Every nerve in his body burned with fire, and it was all that he could do to crawl out from under the metal that had been crushing him before he fell unconscious, oddly reassured in the knowledge that he still had to live, even if it was painful.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Duo rolled over in bed once again, that nagging sensation that he was forgetting something poking and prodding at him. What could it possibly be? He should be entirely exhausted right now, shouldn't he? There had just been a huge battle, Libra had been destroyed, what more was there to do besides rest? Duo turned over again, trying to push away the nagging feeling that refused to go away. He was forgetting something... Shaking his head once more in firm determination, Duo silenced the little voice. Whatever it was could wait.

It didn't want to wait. "Damn it! Okay, I get it, I'm not done yet, now what the hell is it that I'm forgetting?" Duo waited, and waited even more, his mind raking for anything that could possibly inspire to keep him awake at that moment. Nothing. The little niggling voice had suddenly shut up. And now, he was wide-awake. "What'd I ever do to deserve this?" It was a petulant whine as Duo sat up, sighing. He'd gone with Hilde back to the scrap yard, but damned if he'd actually do any sleeping now.

Getting out of bed, Duo padded barefoot into the kitchen, his loose, black, long sleeved pajamas hiding the array of scars that he bore like a crest. He blinked a few times as one of the little gadgets he'd given to Hilde before spun in place, the electric creature shape-changing into something closely resembling an imp. Duo froze in place accordingly as the little black metal creature spoke. "Master, we've been waiting a long time for you."

Duo continued to stare at the little thing that was sitting on the counter, and leaned back against the wall behind him heavily. "Okay, that's it, I have to sleep, I'm starting to lose my mind." With that, Duo retreated back to Hilde's guestroom, locking the door behind him before hiding under the covers. He didn't dare go to sleep once he heard the high pitch giggles that had chased him into the room.

To be continued?


	2. Walking backwards

**Title:** Unseen by Death

**Author:** Skeren Dreamera

**Pairings:** to be 2x6

**Category:** Shounen Ai, Sci Fi, Comedy.

**Warnings:** Some supernatural, shounen ai

**Spoilers:** Epyon, Libra, end of the war

**Feedback: **(without spaces and adding an at sign ::glares at FF net::) Mickeofas yahoo. com

**Notes:** ::beams:: To all those wonderful wonderful people who reviewed!

Walking backwards.

Duo watched the sun inch into his window, eyes bloodshot from his determined lack of blinking. The giggling stopped. Rolling over in bed, the braided teen slowly got up, inching to his door and pushing it open. Nothing was out there. He didn't think to look at the door, the scratching noises he'd heard going uninvestigated. He was afraid he'd see nothing there. He would have been stunned to see the deep gouges on the bottom of the metal door.

Moving quickly, Duo tossed open Hilde's bedroom door, heedless of any modesty that the girl might have been trying to hang onto. He ducked forward, giving her a couple good shakes to make sure she was awake. "I'm leaving." Without saying anything more, he headed back to his room.

There was a mad scramble that left Hilde in too big pants and a fluffy t-shirt, trailing Duo back to his room with a look of abject confusion on her face. "I thought you were going to stay a while Duo, why are you leaving?"

"Can't stay here Hil, that's why. I think I'm going nutters and I don't want you to be in the way of anything I may get it into my head to do." Duo quickly got together the few things he'd unpacked the night before. He'd rather looked forward to sticking around a while, but that wasn't about to happen now!

"Duo!" Hilde moved forward, effectively barring the doorway. "What are you talking about? You're just fine! You were fine last night, and you're fine now. Could you tell me what's wrong?"

Duo came to a standstill, nose to nose with the dark haired girl. "I told you, I'm going nutters. There's no other explanation. I don't want to leave, really! I was looking forward to being here, but it's either me, or you have some really creepy gizmos that I want no part of!" Duo remembered the eerie giggling that had persisted until the sun came up with a shudder. It was even worse than hearing Heero's laugher while the boy was fighting, and that's saying something!

Hilde stared at Duo in utter bewilderment, reaching forward to put her hands on his shoulders and ignoring his twitch. "Duo. Look at me. There are no freaky gizmos here that you didn't make. The only things here are normal gizmos. You are not going crazy. You are tired. You think you saw something that wasn't there. Okay? Just calm down."

Duo stared back at Hilde. He couldn't believe she just blatantly told him that he didn't know what he was talking about. Was she trying to make him feel better? If she was, she was failing miserably. "Hilde, let go. I'm leaving. I'll come back to visit you. Just, let me leave now."

Hilde finally released him, noticing that he was becoming more and more tense the longer she persisted in touching him. She'd never understood how someone as touchy as him could react so badly to being touched back. "Okay, if you promise to visit me. And you have to vid me and tell me you're alright."

Duo gave Hilde a small, wan smile. "Of course. Promise." Duo then made for the front door, quickly yanking on his boots before slamming out of the door and leaving Hilde's scrap yard.

Hilde just watched him go with a slightly pained expression. "Damn it. I didn't make you promise when..." She had a sinking feeling that she wouldn't be seeing the braided teen again for a very, very long while.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Zechs groaned in agony as the pain that seared him from head to foot broke through the barrier of being unconscious that he had been hanging onto so tenaciously.

"I think he's waking up!" A few people with a loud range of muttered agreements echoed the feminine outcry. Zechs merely wished they would all shut up and leave him alone so he could be in pain in peace. Didn't they realize he'd just been through a major explosion here? Of course, he didn't really register the thought.

"Go way." It came out thick and pained, and he feebly waved a hand at the gawkers that he cracked an eye open to see. What was he, a showcase now? "Away." He repeated the order a little firmer, though it remained little more than a pained whisper. When he realized that he was being ignored, Zechs forced himself to look around, seeing faces that were part of White Fang at some point, or had been, possibly were, clearly from the Sweeper fleet. Frowning in confusion over why he was on display, he tried a different tact. "What's going on?"

"You're alive!" Apparently one of the people nearby had believed that was self-explanatory, they were wrong.

"And?" It was said in a pained voice, as Zechs forced his mind to work out what the hell they were all making such a big deal of. He nearly blew up the Earth, Libra was destroyed, and thereafter he was partially crushed under his suit on an asteroid... He ground to a halt at that point. "How am I still alive?"

There was a flurry of movement as the crowd parted, and Zechs found himself nose to nose with a gray eyed man who had been a Sweeper on Howard's ship when he had been there a few weeks before. "That's really what we all want to know at the moment."

Zechs moved his hands, ever so slowly, to his face, and was relieved when he didn't need to move them anymore. He felt like he'd been blown up, then stomped on by a Gundam. Oh wait, he had! Now why was he still breathing...? "Did I crash to Earth?" It was the only sensible answer, as it couldn't have been a meteor after all, he would have suffocated.

"No. You were in space. We had to bind your ribs and put balms on your burns... But you weren't breathing." He seemed a little amazed by this as he spoke to Zechs, pulling back from the battered blonde. "And you still aren't."

Zechs' eyes flew wide open and he looked at the crowd around him, trying to understand. "What?" A hand from one of the crowd pressed on his chest, and Zechs was jarred _into_ breathing. They were right, he hadn't been breathing... And it hurt to restart the process. "What happened to me?" It was a weak phrase, rife with confusion and said in just a low whisper. He had to be alive for some reason, right?

To be continued.

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My oh so kind reviewers! Thank you!

ML: **Karina**, **Abby**, **Kagi**, **Jennifer**

FF peeps: **The Chaotic Ones**, **Kitish Veldgryr**, **shinigami88220**, **Crysania Fay**


	3. Minion?

**Title:** Unseen by Death  
**Author:** Skeren Dreamera  
**Pairings:** to be 2x6  
**Category:** Shounen Ai, Sci Fi, Comedy.  
**Feedback:** Mickeofas(yahoo)  
**Warnings:** Some supernatural, Shounen ai  
**Spoilers:** Epyon, Libra, end of the war  
**Notes:** I should tell everyone I'm keeping my categories. I like them. Now, to the ever awaited chapter 2! No review listing, I kinda lost track of em somewhere, but next chapter I will, I mean it!

.-.

'-'

Zechs had managed to move after a couple days. If what had just happened to him hadn't killed him, then he didn't know what could. In fact, he was shocked beyond all knowledge at the speed of his healing. It felt like he'd been weeks in recovery instead of merely days in pain. This led to the current situation. He was meeting with the captain of this ship, a pale man with graying hair, light brown eyes, and pale skin. He looked like he'd never seen a day of sunlight in his life.

Those light brown eyes had been following him around as he got to the point where he could move without feeling the urge to scream, and now, they clearly were determined to get some form of conversation out of him. Or rather, the owner of the eyes was. The captain lounged back in his chair with a small, secretive smile as he looked across the desk to where Zechs was seated. "Merquise."

Zechs smiled, and it wasn't without humor, though the humor it held was dark. "That would be me, though would you mind too terribly if I asked for the name of the person I'm addressing?"

"I would, so you can just call me Gray. Now that the preliminaries are handled, I'd like to ask you a question that has been on all of our minds. What are you?" Gray leaned forward rather abruptly, elbows resting on the secured wooden desk that he'd insisted on for his office, no matter how impractical for space.

Zechs hadn't been expecting that question, not really, and he blinked owlishly by way of reply for a few seconds. "What exactly do you mean with that question?"

"What the bloody hell do you think I mean? I mean, what the _fuck_ are you? You sure and the hell can't be human after what we saw. You didn't freeze in the space vacuum, you didn't _breath_ nor need to once we got you here! You still had a heartbeat through all that. So I'm asking you, and I sincerely hope you give me the correct answer, because I'm not sure I can handle anymore freaky things out of you."

Zechs was speechless for a few moments before he regained his composure. "Well, would you like an honest answer?"

Gray immediately nodded, eyes narrowing slightly as he waited for an answer. When Zechs didn't speak, he did instead. "Yes, I would like an honest answer."

Zechs nodded a little before he leaned back in his chair with a slow, cautious action. "I have no idea." Gray's reaction almost made him smile, he looked so stunned. The reprieve was short lived, unfortunately.

"Are you playing some kind of joke? I'll tell you now I'm not about to find it funny." Gray leaned back a fraction, running his icy eyes over the blond in front of him with a frown.

"No joke, I just really don't know. I thought I was human until now, but I don't know if that was ever true." Zechs shook his head with a faint sigh.

"I'm sure you'll find out, and when you do, you'll tell me." Gray looked to Zechs, making sure he didn't have any disagreement before nodding to himself. "You can go ahead and go now. I'm not sure I want to ask you anymore questions for a while."

Zechs gave him a knowing smile and nodded, rising to his feet. "Of course Gray, I would see you at some other time in your convenience then."

"I'm sure you will." Gray watched Zechs move out of his office, staring after the regal figure for a long moment before shaking his head and putting his chin in his hand. "It's too early in the peace to have to mess with these riddles. Why did I have to be the one who's crew found the man?" Of course, the walls of his office had no answer to give the man.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Duo bit his lip and stared at his palm where he'd been cut by his latest work. It hadn't taken him long after he'd left Hilde in her home to find another place, and this place came with its own personal junkyard. He'd been out there ever since, and he spent every night after dark locked in the room he'd chosen for his bedroom, trying to get used to the taunting little creatures that peered in his window and scratched at his door. It was wholly useless. He thought it had been because of where he was, that Hilde's place somehow was haunted.

Oh how wrong he'd been. Now... Now he was staring with morbid fascination at the creation under his hands as the drops of blood that came from the cut in his palm soaked into the steel. They didn't roll away, or spread out, they vanished into the rapidly darkening metal. It was almost a bright fresh blood red now. Duo could have cursed himself for the stray thoughts, but he figured it would be pointless anyway.

Duo remained in place, the sun beating down on his shoulders, as the figure under his hands... moved. That action seemed to have snapped Duo out of his trance, and he skittered back as the red resolved itself into an odd set of shirt and pants, and the curled ball of mechanics softened out into something else, only the items now obviously cloth visible.

"The hell?" Duo muttered the curse softly, relaxing a little as the curled thing didn't immediately lunge at him showing some sort of hell beast. He didn't know what was going on, but resolved that from that point on, there'd be no jumping at shadows. It had been nearly a week since this whole thing started after all, and he wasn't dead yet.

Duo, too wrapped up in his thoughts, didn't notice that the small figure unfurled, red down wings being revealed as the little male figure, who would have been barely three foot if he was standing, shoved himself to a cross-legged position. "Nah, not really." The tiny male propped his chin on his knee, peered up at Duo as the crouched figure jerked his attention back to him with a visible jolt. "But it'd be good to know when you got so big."

There was a moment of stunned silence before Duo leaned forward, picking up the longhaired little blond in his hands and staring at his, mouth agape as he took in the familiar, teenage features of an old friend. An old, very dead friend who used to be much bigger than this. "You!" Duo gave the little man a shake, ignoring the annoyed look that got him. "You are _dead_!"

"I bin knowin that for a while now Kid. And can you stop shaking me? My head's startin to hurt." Immediately the little figure in red was dropped, where fell back on his ass, staring up at Duo who was now standing back, both staring and glaring at him. "Ya never could make anything easy for me could ya? Could you calm down? It wasn' my fault I died! I'm back now an will me for a bit yet."

Duo took a few deep breaths, trying not to freak out at the small, very disgruntled person who looked like her child savior. It wasn't him, it couldn't be. "You are not Solo."

Solo gave Duo a sour look, getting to his feet and ruffling his wings with indignation before looking to the appendages in shock, his gave then traveling over his clothes. "What the fuck am I wearin? An the feathers? Where'd those come from?"

"You kinda appeared like that after I cut myself." Duo moved closer, picking up his mentor again, ignoring the look it got him. "You hardly weigh anything."

Solo kicked his feet a little, then gave up after Duo kept him suspended further away as a precaution. "Could ya stop that? 'M not four. An, an' I'm dressed like a minion! Why would I be a minion?"

"You're the one that knew you were dead." Duo set Solo on his feet, nicely, and watched him fling his wings around a bit.

"But! There'd have to be some god around here for me to be a _minion_ of all things. An it'd have to be someone I knew..." Solo trailed off, giving Duo a wide eyed look. "What've you been _into_ kid?"

Duo grinned, unable to resist baiting his old friend, somehow soothed he wasn't angry for failing him in this strange reunion. "Just saving the wold and calling myself the God of Death Sol, no biggie."

Solo shook his head, looking around the junkyard they were in. "No biggie my ass."

To be continued.


End file.
